If mobile media marketing was a food, what kind of food would it be? Foi gra -- or fattened duck or goose liver -- says Frank Barbieri, CEO and founder of mobile video platform Transpera. “It’s delicious and unctuous,” but it’s not a particularly large portion like TV’s meat or print’s potatoes. And by “unctuous,” we can only assume Barieri means high performing among a high desirable demo. Indeed, mobile marketing is currently achieving “double-digit lift” among 18-35-year-olds, he says.

Leading off the today's panel focusing on mobile video, Frank Barbieri, CEO of mobile video network Transpera, likened the nascent category to a "delicious and unctious, but rather small' part of the media meal, not yet the meat and potatoes. Sounds like tapas-yum. But Barbieri said it shows promise, with double digit brand lift across all metrics including, unaided brand awareness, intent to buy and recall. Not surprisigly, 18 to 34 year olds represent the most acive demo, with a concentration among iPhone users. At 6 to 7 minutes per session, time spent is longer than might expected. In …

Fifty years ago, owning a local TV station was a great business, according to Brian Buchwald, SVP, Local Integrated Media, NBC Universal. It was, in effect, “a license to print money,” he said. Yet, the Internet has put that model back on its heals, he admits. “With audiences fragmenting, it’s important to find them on those new platforms,” he said. “The bigger focus is on figuring out what people what … What people care about in New York, relative to L.A.,” etc. Overall, the local online ad business is presently worth a little over $1 billion, according to …

Where do marketers go? Where the consumers are, Andrew Markowitz, Digital Marketing and Media Director, Kraft, and OMMA Video’s afternoon keynote. Of consumers, Markowitz said, “We engage them the way they want to be engaged.” Kraft, according to Markowitz has done plenty of video, which he categorizes in the realm of “micro-relevancy.” “How do you talk to consumers in a way that keeps them interested.” Of no surprise to anyone, Markowitz reminded us that “Control has been wrested away from marketers … As marketers we have to be thinking about thing in different ways, instead of just being …

To help clarify differnt industry efforts, Scheppach explains that while the IAB is focused on highlight need for video standards, while Vivaki's "pool" initiative is focused on figuring exactly which format works best in practice, powered by consumer research. In other words, which will be the ONE video ad unit for the industry to get behind. So the IAB is setting the table and Vivaki is supposed to knock it out of the park? Stay tuned...

The panelists seem to agree that industry needs alternative ad formats to the pre-roll, but they're not so forthcoming on specifics. Tracy Scheppach is tight-lipped on findings coming out of Vivaki's "pool" research so far and CBS's sales svp Lagana mentioned "unique executions' for travel and financial services advertisers, that showed solid metrics, but he didn't elaborate. So, pre-roll, bad, innovation and experimentation, good, but no clear answers on what works best for both advertisers and audiences. Shulman says were not at point to offer best practices yet for online video. Hasn't the IAB done that already?

The before-lunch panel looks at what it takes to make online video ads watchable--a tall order. Panelists including execs from CBS Interactive, BofA, Starcom and the Digital Innovation Group (u.dig) agreed more effort has to go into making ads engaging and taking full advantage of the interactive nature of the Internet. "We keep treating it as one-way medium, acknowledge u.dig's Alan Schulman. One of the challenges is getting ad creative that can scale across multiple platforms and properties. Starcom's Tracey Schleppach said the majority of ads lack a key aspect of the Internet which is empowerment. But a scalable …

Tracey Scheppach, SVP, Video Innovation Director, Starcom USA, just announced the launch of “Lane 2” of the Pool -- Publicis’ VivaKi effort to develop a more consumer-friendly replacement for the standard pre-roll ad unit in partnership with top online video suppliers (AOL, Broadband Enterprises, CBS, Discovery, Hulu, Microsoft and Yahoo), along with a half dozen major marketers.

In considering advertising against original Web video, Media Contact's Adam Kasper says the agency looks at it as an investment. The questions is whether its worthwhile to spend $500K on helping underwrite 5 or 6 episodes which will get distributed around the Web. He suggests its a risky upfront investment for an agency even if they get to play a stronger role in shaping the content and production. Studios like Next New Networks and others than produce videos for relatively low cost , $5,000 or $6,000, while reaching a sizeable audience stand the best chance of making it work. …